This invention relates to fused alumina/zirconia materials which have found wide applicability, especially in the field of abrasives. The invention relates particularly to a process for making such materials that has significant cost advantages over those currently practiced in the art.
It is well known from patents such as U.S. Pat No. 3,454,385; 3,891,408; 4,454,767 and 5,143,522 that alumina and zirconia can be co-fused in the same vessel and then formed in to very useful abrasive grains, particularly when the process is manipulated to ensure that the zirconia in obtained in the tetragonal form.
However the very nigh cost of the zirconia component has made it difficult for the grain to be as widely accepted as its undoubted utility as an abrasive would seem to justify.
A process has now been discovered that enables a very low cost source of zirconia to be used, thus making this very valuable abrasive grain accessible at a more moderate price.